Who am I?
by The Final Conduit
Summary: Shadow the Hedgehog had no memories. That was obvious. But the Emeralds stood out like a beacon when he realized what they could do for him... Shadow the Hedgehog retelling as one linear story line.


The setting sun tinged the entire world an orange as it kissed the horizon. He stood, standing straight, arms crossed, eyes a bright crimson color.  
He had jet black fur covering his body, with red lines like those of streaks giving his wrists and calfs a line of hair as red as his eyes. His five quills pointed away from his head, curving up, streaks painting the middle of each one.  
Shadow the hedgehog had a troubled look on his face.  
He kept trying to push the barrier that kept him from what he wanted.  
And those things were his memories.  
His efforts proved futile after several moments, and for once, Shadow gave up with a heavy sigh.  
However, he could feel himself thinking about his amnesia a moment later.  
But only two things stood out to him.  
His name for one.  
Shadow the hedgehog.  
He narrowed his eyes in concentration, sounding it out slowly in his head again.  
_Shadow the hedgehog..._  
He said it mentally, again and again, trying to understand why he always gained that feeling whenever he heard it.  
Obviously it was his name, but Shadow was always brought to confusion whenever he pondered the reason he was brought what he would only allow himself to admit to be discomfort when he said, heard, or thought his own name.  
The other thing was just one slice of a memory that he had...

* * *

_Run._  
_His breath was rugged._  
_He clutched her hand tightly, pulling her forward but being careful not to go too quickly._  
_He dared to glance back, seeing the young girl's frightened face, her blue eyes wide with fear._  
_He got a glance behind her, and he could see those soldiers still hot in pursuit of them._  
_He cursed under his breath, running slightly faster to get away._  
_They reached a door, and Shadow shut it quickly, then ran with the girl to the control panels, where she began quickly working._  
_He could feel a pang of uselessness at the fact that he couldn't help her._  
_He felt a wave of impatience come over him, but it all became fear when the sound of a door opening filled his ears._  
_They both whipped around, eyes widening, seeing the soldiers._  
_Before either could do anything at all, one soldier lifted his firearm, aiming almost instantly before pulling the trigger._  
_The shot echoed in their ears, and Shadow felt himself scream out loudly, a single name._  
_"Maria!_"  
His voice even echoed in that memory's end.  
He opened his eyes, thinking about the memory again and again, the same questions coming to surface instead of answers.  
The same ones that always came.  
Who was he?  
Why couldn't he remember anything but his name?  
...who was this "Maria"?  
He looked through that one clue he had (which was the name, as soldiers pursuing him wasn't really that uncommon).  
"Maria" was Latin for "Star of the Sea" as far as Shadow knew.  
And what he knew was deeply based on Rouge the bat's intelligence.  
He gazed at the city that lay before him, Westopolis, but his mind was elsewhere, not surprisingly.  
He narrowed his eyes again, sounding out his name again in his mind.  
_Shadow the hedgehog..._  
The name was his, and it gave him no memory, but still gave him that unsettling feeling in his spine.  
Why did his name do that to him, when blatantly nothing else in the entire world even brought a pang if fear inside the hedgehog?  
He sighed again, closing his eyes, feeling the sun gazing at him again.  
The sun's rays suddenly disappeared however.  
Shadow opened his eyes at the lack of heat, only to see red storm clouds paint the sky like tendrils, forming a vortex of air in the sky.  
Looking closer, Shadow saw several black objects falling from the sky.  
They descended as though they were the bringers of the apocalypse, then destroying everything within their path.  
Shadow didn't blink as he stared at the chaos.  
Humans...  
He scoffed in disgust, turning and walking away.  
It was hard to believe how weak they were...  
Shadow just didn't have time for it.  
But as he walked away, he stopped, hearing a deep and ancient voice speak, "Shadow..."  
He stopped walking instantly, eyes widening slightly.  
Slowly, he turned back to the source of the voice, seeing a star floating in the sky before him.  
In that split second, a hologram appeared before Shadow, and he heard... no, felt the voice again, the image of a being with royal robes and diamonds hanging on his neck.  
"As you can see, the day of reckoning is upon us," It's hand waved to the chaos behind it for emphasis, "Bring the seven Chaos Emeralds to me, as promised."  
Shadow stared in puzzlement, "What? Who are you? How do you know who I am? What are you talking about?"  
The star only flew away before he could stop it.  
Before he could even try to catch up with it, it disappeared into thin air.  
He stared again.  
Just what was that about? He had never seen the person before, let alone make some promise to it.  
But wait...  
Shadow remembered his words, _"Bring me the seven Chaos Emeralds..."_  
He knew about those emeralds.  
Many said that if all seven were gathered, a miracle would happen.  
And now that he thought of it...  
Slowly, Shadow began smiling at his realization.  
If he gathered those emeralds, then he would most definitely get his memories back.  
He closed his eyes briefly, then looked back at Westopolis.  
He could feel that it was here.  
One or more Chaos Emeralds were located here.  
He, along with a few others, had that ability if they could use the powers of the Emeralds.  
Now filled with a new objective (and quite possibly a new hope) Shadow ran towards the city, his skates making him seem to fly through the air


End file.
